Pressure Independent Control Valves (PICV) can help reduce energy costs and increase
occupant comfort in heating and cooling coil applications in buildings. A PICV is the combination of
as two valves in one: a standard 2-way control valve and a balancing valve.
PICV obtain optimal results because only the necessary amount of hot water (in GPM) and
chilled water (in GPM) can go into the heating and cooling coils.
Standard 2-way control valves allow for overflow and underflow especially if we oversize or undersize the control valve. Then, this generates excess water to the pump to compensate for their inaccuracy, which increases pumping cost.
The actuators on PICV valves do not cycle as often as standard 2-way valves to compensate for
pressure changes in the system that impact the flow, which results in energy savings.
PICV Features and benefits
Stable room temperature
Eliminating the overflow situations at partial load conditions has a significant effect on the stability of the room temperature.
Improved indoor comfort
With the stable room temperature, the indoor comfort increases. Hence, required temperatures are accurately met, increasing the productivity of office employees or benefitting the experience of hotel guests.
Energy savings
The perfectly balanced system, under all conditions, increases the energy efficiency. So, this leads to savings on energy costs.
Reduced maintenance costs
As the pressure-independent valves ensure perfect working conditions, the actuators mounted on them require fewer movements to keep the temperature stable. Therefore, this increases the lifetime value of the actuators and reduces the maintenance costs.
We can adjust flow rate in two different ways:
• manually on the automatic flow rate regulator, to restrict the maximum value
• automatically by the control valve in combination with a proportional (0–10 V) or ON/OFF actuator, in accordance with the thermal load requirements of the section of the circuit.
The pressure independent control valve (PICV) comes with connections for upstream and downstream pressure test ports for checking of operating conditions.
We can use the device in air-conditioning systems.
